Category: Workshop

Did you miss our raised bed workshop this spring? Here’s your chance to join us Saturday, November 11th from 9 am to noon for a hands-on raised bed workshop for all skill levels at the Grayson LandCare/IFM office at 108 Courthouse Street. Cost is $10 and light refreshments will be served.

Plan to join us Saturday April 1st from 10 am to 2 pm for a potluck lunch and a hands on raised bed workshop for all skill levels at the Grayson National Bank conference center in the Gywnn shopping center next to FoodCity

. We’ll talk about planting dates, spacing, interplanting and succession plantings. Using information from the best national and local gardeners you’ll learn to apply these techniques to a single raised bed or a full sized market garden. Hope to see you then! We are able to offer the workshop free of charge thanks to our FMPP grant from the USDA. The class is limited to 50 people. Please email Michelle Pridgen at independencefarmersmarket@gmail.com to register. Don’t forget to bring a dish to share.

Pre-season Vendor Meeting and Potluck lunch

Friday April 7th

Plan to join us Friday April 7st from 11 am to 2 pm for a potluck lunch at the Grayson National Bank conference center in the Gywnn shopping center next to FoodCity

Learn about becoming an IFM vendor,sign up for the season and enjoy a potluck lunch with your fellow vendors. Please bring any scales you plan to use at the Market so they can be certified by VDACS.

The Independence Farmers Market will host an On-line Media workshop Friday April 8th from 10:30 to 11:45 in the auditorium of the 1908 Courthouse. Learn how to best use Facebook to promote your business. To get the most out of the training, please bring your computer. The workshop is free and open to the public. In addition, paid season vendors will receive an additional hour of personalized training. See the instructor after the class to schedule a time.

The preseason vendor meeting will begin at noon with a potluck lunch. The meeting will begin as soon as everyone is served. Please bring any scales you plan to use at the market for certification. In addition, Danny Neel will discuss the Senior coupon program. We’ll go over rules and fees and assign spaces. Please send me a brief description of your business and some pictures for inclusion on the webpage(independencefarmersmarket@gmail.com). Please also consider whether you want to be a vendor for the Wednesday evening Market beginning June 15th. It will be included in your vendor fee. See you then. Here’s to another great year!

Suzanne Slack, regional horticulture extension agent will discuss strategies for organic control of pests and diseases of vegetable crops Friday February 26th from 1-2:30 pm at the Grayson County Library meeting room. The library is located at 147 S Independence Ave, Independence, Virginia 24348

Come at noon if you’d like to join us for a potluck lunch. This free event is open to the public and sponsored by the Independence Farmers Market.

Looking for a way to garden or farm and grow food and flowers for yourself, or to provide some extra income? Interested in a small way, a big way? Head for the next Independence Farmers Market workshop on April 18th at the Grayson Bank Conference Center in downtown Independence, VA. It’s a two-part all day event geared to help you take your garden production to the next level: featuring practical information, all important hands on learning, and a network of other gardeners and farmers! And it’s only $10 now, or $12 at the door. Or free for students and season vendors of the market!

The morning session, starting at 8:30 am, looks at the basics, with the details of bed preparation, plant spacing, intercropping, succession planting, and crop yields per bed area. Michelle Pridgen, Market Manager for the Independence Farmers Market will walk you through these important plans. After a break, Rick Cavey of Wagon Wheel Farm will discuss his favorite tried and true garden tools and techniques for sustainable growing, such as seeders, broad fork, colonial hoes, flame weeders!, raised beds, laying plastic mulch, setting up drip irrigation, and season extension. But how do you figure out what to sell and grow? Caleb Crowell, owner of New Appalachia, and formerly New River Organic Growers, focuses on specialty crops, how to decide what’s best for you to grow and how much to grow to increase sales and profits.

Then comes a pot luck lunch — your contribution to the fun and informative day!

And then in the afternoon, we’ll head to the nearby Wagon Wheel Farm, just west of Independence. There, you’ll see the practical applications of what you learned in the morning session including growing transplants, intensive planting in the high tunnel, examples of raised beds and contour gardening, features of drip irrigation. If weather allows, we’ll bend a few hoops for a small tunnel, and watch a demonstration of a bedder/mulch layer.

It’s workshop season. The 1st FREE IFM workshop is Saturday March 28th from 8:30 am to noon at the Grayson National Bank Conference Center. We’re focusing on marketing and pricing your products, whether it’s vegetables, meats, eggs or artisan crafts. Mandy Archer with the Small Business Development Center at Cross Roads is our featured speaker. We’ll also have producer roundtable discussion. Join us for a potluck lunch.

The Independence Farmers Market pre-season vendor meeting

begins at noon and goes to about 2 pm. Please join us if you’d like to be a vendor this year. Fees are $40 for the season or $10 a day. Your 1st time at the market is free and it’s always free for students. We’ll be assigning spaces. Hope to see you there.

And save the date for Saturday April 18th for Market Garden Workshop.

It also starts at 8:30 am at the Grayson National Bank Conference Center. Classes in the morning include crop planning and succession planting, favorite tools and techniques , and Niche Marketing until noon, join us for another potluck lunch. Then we’ll go out to Wagon Wheel Farm for hands on workshops including different kinds of raised beds, bending low hoops, setting up irrigation, touring the high tunnel and transplant greenhouse and more.